Hersch: Cello Sonata No. 2 - Milosz Fragments - Feldman - Rihm: Piano Pieces

Time Out New York on Hersch - Josquin - Rihm - Feldman Piano Pieces

     

"Hersch creates music of stark, austere beauty. He is also a brilliant pianist, as this darkly compelling program shows. He plays his own spare transcriptions of works by 15th century master Josquin des Prés, as well as Morton Feldman’s chilly “Piano Piece (for
Philip Guston)”, the moody silences and sometimes gauzy, sometimes jangly textures of which he articulates with imposing power. In Wolfgang Rihm’s “Auf einem anderen Blatt”, Hersch’s palette ranges from diaphanous, petal-soft tones to startlingly metallic stabs. Of greatest interest are Hersch’s “Milosz Fragments”, inspired by the Nobel laureate’s poems and based on the composer’s 2003 work, the wreckage of flowers, and his Sonata No. 2 for Unaccompanied Cello. An immensely rewarding disc.” -- Time Out NY